Can traditionally-drawn comics succeed?

[palmshoes]

since i enjoy doing doodles with sharpies, pens, and other tools of that sort, i plan on making a comic in that style. to elaborate a lil more, i've been drawing these on index cards, and i place 'em onto card stock of different colors. the thing is, since the style is relatively simple, i'm not sure if it's gonna catch eyes, or gain readers. i've never really done a comic like this before anyway, and i want to know if this is worth pursuing.
that being said, i'm not against the idea of changing up the style as it goes on.
could this style not be a detriment to the comic? and are there any other examples of this?

thanks!
-palm

[ninjashira]

I think people are drawn to things that are unique and stand out. I remember reading a webcomic back in the day that was drawn with sharpies and sticky notes on cardboard, with parts of the cardboard cut out to reveal colored paper behind it. It was super cool and fun.

The MOST important thing when you're doing a comic with simple art is to make sure the writing is top notch. Whether it's to be funny or moving or what have you, it has to be THAT MUCH BETTER than a similar comic with better art in order to reel people in.

Typically simple comics lean towards humor, and those can get crazy popular. Just look at things like Cyanide & Happiness, XKCD, Lunar Baboon, Sr Grafo, Shen Comics, Sarah's Scribbles, Catana Comics... All of them have very simple artstyles, but massive online followings because of the writing - the humor and/or the heart of the writing is clearly conveyed even through very simplistic art styles.

I do think Tapas isn't the best platform for comics like that. On Tapas, there is definitely a preference for long-running character-driven story adventures, as opposed to gag-a-day strips. That style of comic tends to do better on social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit.

But most importantly, if you want to make this comic for yourself... Go for it! And have fun. If you are enjoying what you do, that will come through, and other people will enjoy it as well.

[palmshoes]

for my comic i want to do a lil bit of both.. and i'm hoping that this kinda thing would work on a website that predominantly focuses on comics like this. thanks for your reply!

[Rhonder]

I think they definitely have potential to succeed. I think the main disadvantage that a traditional medium comic faces vs. the more typical (these days) digital comics is finding a process that gets your comic onto the computer and keeps it looking good in the process. It's a hurdle that digital artists don't have to deal with since their art is just already on the computer lol.

With photographs it can be hard to get a good and consistent lighting not at an angle, but with scanning you often have to fiddle with the settings in an image editor to get it to actually look like the original piece (and in some cases if you're using a big paper with a little scanner, do multiple scans and stitch them together... I had to deal with this for my first Tapas comic- traditional inks with digital colors, each of my 11x17 pages took 4 scans on my letter sized printer. Thankfully Photoshop has an auto-stitch function!).

But like if you get a workflow going that works well for you then there's no reason not to go for it

[AmazementComics]

Yeah, I'll agree with the others on here. I can think of two examples of traditionally drawn comics on Tapas that have received moderate to great success. One i'll leave the link to down below is called Hazbin Hotel: The Forgery. The second one happens to be some of my older comic series from 3 years ago. They were made using traditional pencil and paper. Believe you me, I didn't get to where I am now if there wasn't for at least a few people on here encouraging me when I was just starting out on Tapas.

As long as you have the tenacity, and will to put your product out there for general consumption. I can guarantee you that people are bound to like it for one reason or another. Even if lots of people are doing art that's digital, don't let your art style be the "end all be all" of why you think your comics might not last. You'll never know how successful they are unless you try. Good luck with your comic going forward .

Here's the comic I was talking about. The creator literally only uses blue sticky notes:
https://tapas.io/series/Hazbin-Hotel-The-Forgery

[mikeampao1]

I wonder if you read Manga because there are still traditionally drawn by hand and sells a million. Currently One piece manga holds the Guinness record for Top 3 best selling comics in existence and it's still ongoing.

[lilyeonyeon]

I do have a comic that's traditionally made. It's not sharpies, rather watercolour but readers seem to enjoy the different style. I don't see a reason for it not work honestly, if anything as others already mentioned, it would help your comics stand out and make a brand of their own if you are consistent with your work!

Here is an example of how my comic looks!

So I believe you can do it, cheers!

[Kiweevil]

Don't forget that, while it is finished up digitally, Lackadaisy itself is a handrawn webcomic done in pencil. And it has been extremely well received, to the point where just a few months ago they literally funded an animated version of it through Kickstarter.

It's just one example, there's a lot of comics out there done partially or fully with traditional tools and they can do just as well. Sometimes it's their choice of medium that aids highly to their aesthetic and quality.

[WOSTR]

I would rather hand draw personally, I find it easier and I like the way it looks, from monochrome to way too bright ane colourful.
I'm just determined to get the hang of digital as it's more forgiving.

[WOSTR]

This is lovely work, I love watercolour.

[EmmyPax]

Love your style, lilyeonyeon!

I also work traditionally, though I'm too new to the game to be able to announce whether or not the style has "worked" for me. I'm no big potatoes yet.

BUT! I think the most important question about what media to use for your webcomic should come down to some mix of how you like working and what the needs of the comic are. It took a while before I came up with a comic concept that suited my art style well, and even longer for me to realize that doing comics traditionally worked better for me than digitally. I just don't enjoy making digital art enough, and I love paint. So my work flow is actually better/more efficient when painting.

I think if you are working traditionally, it's important to define your process and come up with rules you follow in order to keep your workload sustainable. That's an important component for everybody, of course, but I think particularly when you are limited in terms of what you can do with digital manipulation and blowing a panel can mean "starting over" completely, it's important to find ways of structuring your work flow. I'm not the most detailed artist to begin with, but I still ended up simplifying my style a bit when I got my comic underway, in order to make my technique work. I also switched to doing a lot more glazing and using color straight from the watercolor tubes, so that it was easier to keep things consistent, rather than painstakingly mixing everything from a limited palette of colors, like I usually did in my more realistic watercolor work. What work-arounds you need will vary based on your project and materials, but yeah. General principle would be define your process and make sure you can stay sane while working traditionally.

If you're curious, here's a peep at my comic.

Neptune Bay

[rajillustration]

It's not so much traditional vs digital, it's whether it's legible and fun in the the end, which is down to skill and making good art choices. Do you have a sample of what you're doing so we can see it? Then we can have a clearer picture of what may be working or what may need improvement.

[palmshoes]

some panels from the opening scene. the only problem i have with it right now is the text on the second panel being a lil squished. the panels are done on index cards, and it'll be placed onto a solid surface of different materials/colors.

[palmshoes]

my style is nowhere near as impressive as the others sent in this thread (really good stuff btw), but i feel i'm more or less creating something that'll make me happy.

[Rhonder]

my style is nowhere near as impressive as the others sent in this thread

I dunno, I actually think it would work pretty well for the traditional medium you're going for you may find that the thick lines and big blocks of color might be easier to get to look nice when photographing or scanning than something with more intricate lines or blended colors. The only thing to pay special attention to (like you've already mentioned) is to be careful with the lettering- make sure to plan out each card such that there's plenty of room for all of the text you need to avoid squishing and make sure that the letters read clearly. I'd definitely be interested to see where this goes, though

[EmmyPax]

I think it's nice seeing more of that bold line style! I find some of the hyper detailed art that's all thin, spidery lines and perfect faces can get kinda same-y looking. Your art has personality to it!

[palmshoes]

the first episode of my comic is up, if anyone wants to check it out maybe https://tapas.io/episode/1824277